Handmaid's themes

17- 'waste not want not. i am not being wasted. why do i want'

18- 'they are to keep us from seeing but also from being seen'

23- ''so, you're the new one''

24- 'as far as i'm concerned ths  is like a business transaction'

39- 'modesty is invisibility.... to be seen...is to be penetrated'

48- ' she had a way of talking about me to others as if i couldnt hear'

53- 'as if shes on little oiled wheels, as if shes on top of a music box'

60- 'when i was imaginary to him. before we were married and solidified'

51- 'men and women tried eachother on , casually, like suits, rejeccting whatever didnt fit'

65- 'the spectacles women used to make of themselves.. oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit.... no wonder things used to happen'

70- 'it intersects so that the doctor will never see my face. he deals with torso only'

72- 'my nakedness is strange to me already'

72- ' i dont want to see it. i dont want to look at something which determines me so completely'

84- ' im a clous, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than i am'

91- 'not mine but my bodies, there is a differencee'

107- 'we are containers, its the insides of our bodies that are important'

108- 'buttered, i lie on my single bed, flat, like a piece of toast'

122- i cant think of myself, my body, sometmes without seeing the skeleton.... a cradle of life made of bones'

124- 'we are hers to define, we must suffer her adjectives'

134- 'shes like a doll, an old one thats been pillaged and disgarded, in some corner, akimbo'

136- the baby, washed and quiet, is placed ceremoniously in her arms.... she's won , a tribute

146- 'we are for breeding purposes'

146- 'we are two-leggeed wombs, thats all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices'

169- 'this state of absence, of existing apart from the body'

172- 'to him i am not merely empty'

191- 'i was as small as a doll. i felt love going forward without me'

202- 'you have to create an it, where none was before'

240- 'i have been obliterated for her, i am only a shadow now'

247- 'the official creed denies them, denies their very existance, yet here they are. that is at least something'

248- 'they review my breasts, my legs, as if there's no reason why they shouldn't'

263- 'i am to understand that i am on display'

14- ''they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts'

19- 'a parody of something, some fairytale figure in a red cloak, descending towards a memonet of carelessness that is the same as danger. A sister, dipped in blood'

29- 'short little steps liike a trained pig on its hind legs'

102- 'remember,,, for your perposes your hands and feet are not essential'

197- 'if your dog dies get another'

237- 'if it nevedr happened to you, not ever, you would be like a mutant, a creature from outer space'

261- 'i guess its supposed to demoralize the men, having to wear a dress. ****, it would demoralize me enough... everything considered, i like this outfit better'

266- 'a braille he can read, a cattle brand. it means ownership'

267- 'i lie there like a dead bird'

292- 'he had become an it'

18- 'the colour of blood, which defines us'

23- 'yours is a position of honour'

31- 'they are supposed to show respect, because of the nature of our service'

43- 'evidence from a single woman is no longer admissible'

55- 'her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about how women should stay home'

89- 'i dont sit, but take my place kneeling'

97- 'the knock is perscribed: the sitting room is supposed to be Serena Joy's terretory, hes supposed to ask permission to enter it'

98- 'to achieve vision in this way, this journey into a darkness that is composed of women, a woman, who can see int he darkness while he himself strains blindly forwards'

109- 'i will press  this, somewhere. under the mattress. leave it there for the next woman, the one who comes after me, to find'

140- 'usualy we walked with heads beant down, our eyes on our hands or the ground'

145- 'she depends on me. she hopes and i am the vehicle for her hope'

155- 'the instinct to sooth, make it  all better'

163- 'there was something renassance about this pose'

224- 'we must look good from a distance: picturesque, like Dutch milkmaid's on a wallpaper'

231- 'this way they're protected, they can fufill their biological destines in peace'

233- 'she shall be saved by childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety'

271- 'she's stronger than i thought'

306- 'i am above him, looking down; he is shrinking'

316- 'furst wave of women recruited for reproductiv purposes... position of the elite'

320- 'Gilead was, although undoubtedlu patriarchal in form, occassionally matriarchal in content'

27- 'low status: he hasnt been issued a woman'

32- 'these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women'

71- 'he takes his hand away, lazily alwmost, lingeringly, this is not the last word as far as hes concerned'

98- 'to be a man watched by women it must be entirely strange.... to have them flinch when he moves, even when its harmless enough'

116- 'i must have patience: sooner or later he wwill get me out'

130- 'i dont want a man around, what use are they except for ten seconds worth of half babies. a man is justt a womans strategy for making other women'

131- 'once upon a time you wouldt have been allowed such a hobby, they'd have called you a queer'

167- 'it wasnt the first time he gave evidence of being truely ignorant of the real conditions under which we all lived'

221- 'when he looks up at me its at a  juvenile angle. it must amuse him, this fake subservience'

248- 'nature demans variety, for men. it stands to reason, its part of the procreational strategy. its natures plan'

273- 'a man made of darkness'

127- 'it was from the bible, or so they said. st paul again, in acts'

204- 'i dont believe for a second that what's going on out here is what You meant'

205- 'if they have to die, let it be fast. you might even provide a Heaven for us, we need You for that, hell we can provide for ourselves'

233- 'but i suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence'

233- 'fir adam was first formed, then eve... and adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression'

129- 'they dont play the soundtrack on movies like these... but they dont want us to hear what the unwomen are saying'

131- 'he teased her by pretending to be macho, he'd tell er women were incapable of abstract thought and she'd have another drink and grin at him'

131- 'you dont know what we had to go throuugh, just to get you where you are'

131- 'dont you know how many womens lives, how many womens bodies thee tanks had to roll over just to get that far'

131- 'you call iit nothing. you dont uunerstand do you? you dont understand at all what im talking about'

137- 'can you hear me? you wanted a womens culture. well, now there is one. it isnt what you meant, but it exists. be thankful for small mercies'

162- 'he looked down at the model.... a look you'd give to an almost extinct animal at the zoo'

14- 'no guns though, even they (the aunts) could not be trusted with guns'

17- 'they've removed anything you could tie a rope to'

18-' 'it isnt running away they're afraid of. we wouldnt get far. its those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge'

29- 'the accepted response'

30- 'there are men with machine guns in the pillboxeeson either side of the road'

40- 'we have learned to see the world in gasps'

49- shes in good hands, they said. with people who are fit. you are not fit.'

72- 'there are no razors of course.  there were incidents in bathrooms at frst'

122- 'what is the point of knowing, anyway? you cant have them taken out; whatever it is must be carried to term'

22- 'from a distance it looks like peace'

29 - 'im ravenous for news, any kind of news; even i its false news, it must mean something'

32- 'if there are sounds coming from inside, we try not to hear theem. nobodys heart is perfect'

33- 'a street in a model town constructed to show how people sed to live'

33- 'ths is the heart of gilead, where war cannot intrude, except on television'

42- 'this smile of blood is what fixes the attention, finally. these are not snowmen at all'

60- 'someone has lived in this room, before me. someone like me, or i prefer to believe so'

62- ''i turn her into Moira, Moira when she was in college'

81- 'we looked only, small glances, like sips'

119- 'maybe the life i think im living is a paranoid delusion'

154- 'if its only a story it becomes less frightening'

247- 'at first glance there's a cheerfullness to this scene'

166- 'he nodded gravely. it was impossible to tell whether or not he meant it'

212- 'but this is my own illusion, a hangover from a reality i learned in the former time'

225- 'as if enchanted. a fairy tale, id like to believe'

237- 'i dont want to be telling this story'

244- 'his posture disapporoves of me, or am i imagining it'

245- 'is it contempt i read, or indifference, is this merely what he expected of me?

249- 'maybe he believes it, maybe he doesnt, or maybe he does both at the same time. impossible to tell what he believes'

256- 'ive tried to make it sound as much like her as i can. its a way of keeping her alive'

262- 'i'd like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time'

265- 'i bring myself back, to the here, to the hotel. this is where i need to be'

273- 'i made that up. it didnt happen that way. here is what happened'

275- 'it didnt happen that way either. im not sure how it happened; not exactly. all i can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is only approximate'

279- 'i wish this story were different. i wish it were more civilized'

279- 'im sorry theres so much pain in this story. im sorry its in fragments... but theres nothing i can do to change it'

279- 'this limping and mutilated story'

66- 'we llived, as usual, by ignoring. ignoring isnt the same as ignorance, you have to constantly work at it'

99- 'it must be hell to be a man ike thaat'

135- 'but who can remember pain, once it is over? all that remains is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. pain marks you, but too deep to see. ut of sight out of mind'

139- 'but what use had it been to her in the past, to be blameless'

162- 'its amazing what denial can do'

173- 'things can change so quickly, buildings can be torn down or turned into something else'

231- 'money was the only measure of worth, for everyone, they got no respect as mothers'

232- 'all we've done is return to natures norm'

238- 'these things we were like prayres; you did them and you hoped they would save you'

320- 'scape-goats have been notoriously useful throughout history'

122- 'the air got too full, once, of chemicals, rays, radiation, the air swarmed with toxic mlecules'

173- 'the sea fisheries were defunct several years ago; they few fish they have now are from fish farms, and taste muddy. the news says the coastal areas are being rested'

260- 'they figure you've got three years maximum, at those, before your nose falls off and your skins falls away like rubber gloves'

38- 'it has taken little time to change ur minds, about things like this'

82- ' for a moment, even thorugh we knew what was being done to her, we despised her'

134- 'the chanting goes on, it begins to catch me'

139- 'by that time Janine was like a puppppy thats been kicked too often, by too many people, at random: she'd roll over for anyone'

155- ' how easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all'

181- 'they blamed it on the islamic fanatics at the time'

261- 'i dont want her to be like me, give in, go along, save her skin'

293- 'i dont even feel sorry for her, although i should. i feel angry. im not proud of myself for this, or for any of it. but then, thats the point'

298- 'everything they taught at the red centre, everythig i've resisted, comes flooding in. i dont want pain'

298- 'i want to keep on living, in any form. i resign my body freely, to the uses of others. they can do what they like with me. i am abject'

312- 'the problems of authenticiation in refernce to the handmaids tale'

314- 'we must be cautious about passing moral judgement upon the Gileadeans'

315- 'our job is not to censure but to understand'

317- 'its racist policies, for instance, were firmly rooted in the pre-Gilead period, and racist fears provided some tf the emotional fuel that allowed the Gilead takover to succeed as well as it did'

321- 'it was a brilliant stroke... waterford was, in his prime, a man of considerable ingenuity'

17- 'thought must be rationed. There's alot which does bear thinging about. thinking can hurt our chances, and i intend to last'

43- ' what i feel is that i must not feel'

43- 'i put alot of effort into making distinctions. i need to make them. i need to be very clear, in my own mind'

43- 'i cant afford to know'

49- 'you've killed her... she looked like an angel solomn, compact, made of air'

49- 'i would like to beleive this is a story im telling. i need to believe it. i must believe it. those who can believe such stories are only stories have a better chance'

49- ''it isnt a story im telling. it s aloso a stroy im telling in my head, as i go along'

49- 'buut if its a stroy, even in my head, i must be telling it to someone. you dont tell a story only to yourself. theres always someone else'

50- 'im not in immediate dange, ill say to yu. ill pretent you can hear me. but its no good, because i know you cant'

74- 'they were right, its easier, to think of her as dead. i dont have to hope then'

106- 'kissing is forbidden between us. this makes it bareble. one detatches oneself. one describes'

119- 'sanity is a valuable possession; i hoard it the way people once hoorded money

124- 'i would likke to strangle her.  i shove this thought away almost as soon as i think of it'

135- 'she used to cry about it at night, like the rest of us only more nosily

144- 'if i should ever get out of here .. lets stop there. i intend t get out f here it cant last forever'

153- 'otherwise you live in the moment which is not where i want to be'

155- 'she was thinking about how not to think'

155- 'hysteria. and then a neele, a pill it could be fatal.'

155- 'laughter boiling like lava in my throat

172- 'i'm happier than i was before'

210- 'i decide im only having an attack of sentimentality'

222- 'i try to empty my mind'

237- 'i dobnt have to tell anything, to myself or to anything else.. i could withdraw. its possible to go so far in, so far down and back, they could never get you out'

243- 'i want to go anyway. i want anything that breaks the monotony, subverts the natural order of things'

266- 'i remind myself that he is not an unkind man; that, under other circumstances i even like him'

267- 'i cant afford pride or adversion, there are all kinds of thingshtat have to be discarded, under the circumstances'

18- 'a sitting room in which i never sit, but stand or kneel only'

32- 'i enjoy the power, power of a dog bone, passive but there'

59- 'he's violating custom, what do i do now?'

71- 'its the choice which terrifies me. a way out, a salvation'

97- 'maybe hes forgotten the protocol, but maybe its deliberte'

97- 'he manages to appear puzzled, as if he cant quite remember how we all got in here... he hasnt figured out what to do with us. what we are worth.'

137- 'but she'll never be sent to the colonies, she'll never be declared unwomen. that is her reward'

144- 'remember that forrgiveeness too is a power. to beg for it  is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest'

145- 'maybe its about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it'

146- ''to want is to have weakness'

163- 'he dangled it before me like fishbait'

171- 'i now had power over her, of a kind... why pretend? i enjoyed it alot'

205- 'i suppose i should say i forgive whoever did this, and what ever thay're doing now. ill try but it wont be easy'

211- 'i didnt much like it, this grudge holding against the past'

221- 'its difficult for me to believe i have power over him, of any sort, but i do'

221- 'this lack of fear is dangerous'

222- 'better never means better for everyone, it always means worse for some'

234- 'ther is something powerful in whispering obscenities about those in power'

248- 'he's reached the state of intoxication which power is said to inspir, the state in whihc you believe you are indespensible and can therefore do anything'

280- 'fear is a powerful stimulant'

298- 'i feel, for the first time, their true power'

299- 'for which of my many sins am i accused'

299- 'there is nothing he can do to help. he too would drown'

320- 'it must have been so gratifying for these Handmaids, so ridgidly controlled at times, to be able to tear a man apart with their bare hands every once in a while'

320- 'to institute an effective totalitarian system...you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privildged few, in return for those you remove'

320- 'when power is scarce, a little of it is tempting'

22- 'the tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there'

22- 'many of the Wives have such gardens, its something for them to order and care for'

36-' one of them is vastly pregnantt; her belly... swells triumphantly'

36- 'shes a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire... showing us what can still be done: we too can be saved'

43- 'no woman in her right mind, these days would seek to prevent a birth, should she be so lucky as to conceive'

56- 'you must realise that they are deffeated women. they have become unabel'

71- 'there is no such thing as a sterile man any more, not officially. there are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, thats the law'

83- 'each month i watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. i have failed once again to fufil the expectations of others, which have become my own'

126- 'she's inflated but reduced'

133- 'the soft chanting envelops us like a membrane'

162- 'yards of intricate and useless woll people: her form of procreation, it must be

215- 'its only women who can't , who remain subornly closed, damaged, defective'

226- 'to go through all of that, for nothing. worse than nothing'

323- 'what male in the Gilead period could resist the possibility of fatherhood'

34- 'tthey decided that even the names of shops werre too much temptation for us'

39- 'sometimes it is as dangerous not to speaak'

56- 'she does not make speeches anymore. she has become speechless... how furious she must be to be taken at her word'

98- 'the bible is kept locked up...it is an incedary device.'

98- 'who knows what we would make of it, if we ever got our hands on it. we an be read to from it, by him, but we cannot read'

100- 'they played it from a tape, so not even the aunt would be guilty of the sin of reading. the voice was a mans'

139- 'the aunts are allowed to read and write'

162- 'the commander understands. he knows my situation, none better. he knows all the rules'

195- 'women cant add, he said once, jokingly... for them one and one and one and one dont make four'

205- 'knowing is temptatioon. what you dont know cant tempt you'

205- 'the Fall was a fall from innocence to knowledge'

222- 'theres hardly any point in my thinking... what i think doesnt matter'

258- 'already they'd stopped asking questions, unless they had to'

275- 'i would like to be ignorant. then i would not know how ignorant i was'

290- 'iv heard rumours, which i only half believed. despite everyhting i know.. they woldnt go that far'

313- 'i hesitate to use the word document'

313- 'the painstaking work of transcription'

315- 'if the author is telling the truth'

322- 'she could have told us mucha bout the workings of the Gileadean empire.... What we would not give, now, for even 20 pages or so from Waterford's private computer'

322- 'we must be greatful for any crumbs the Godess of History has designsed to vouchsafe us'

324- 'our document, though in its own way eloquent, is on these subjects mute'

14- 'we exchanged names, from bed to bed'

18- 'the door to the room- not my room, i refuse to say my'

59- 'was he iinvading? was he in my room? i called it mine'

75- 'she knocks at the door before entering. i like her for that. it means she thinks i have some of what we used to call privacy left'

76- 'i wait, i compose myself. my self is a thing i must now compose, as one composes a speech. what i must present is a made thing, not something born'

94- 'i tell myself it doesnt matter, your name is like a telephone number, useful only to others'

108- 'i want to be held and told my name'

191- 'he doesnt mind this, i thougth. he doesnt mind at all. maybe he even likes it. we are not eachothers, any more. instead i am his'

222- 'you cant make an omlette without breaking a few eggs. we thought we could do better'

20- 'i dont listen long, because i dont want to be caught doing it'

31- 'a small defiance of  rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards i hold out for myself'

108- 'i want to steal something'

109- 'he too is illegal, here, wwith me, he cant give me away'

109- 'i want to reach up, taste his skin, he makes me hungary'

110- 'is this what i'd die for? i'm a coward, i hate the thought of pain'

115- 'i cant imagine he hasnt already said whatevre it is. i would'

115- 'i believe in the resistance as i believe ther ecan be no light without shadow; or rather no shadown without  light. there must be a resistance, or where do the criminaals come from? on telelvision'

139- 'for every rule there is always an exception: this too can be depended upon'

143- 'in light of Moira the Aunts were less fearsome and more absurd. their power had a flaw to it.... the audacity was what we liked'

147- 'its an oasis of the forbidden'

161- 'buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to point, to say; whatever is silenced will clamour to be heard, though silently'

196- 'i envy the commander his pen. its one more thing i'd like to steal'

248- 'its a juvenile display, the whole act, and pathetic; but its something i understand'

261- 'she's frightening me now, because what i hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of volition'

261- 'how can i expect her to go on, wirth my idea of her courage, live through it, act it out,when i myself do not?'

282- 'the things she whispers seem to me unreal. hwat use are they, for me, now?'

283- 'the fact is i no longer want to leave, escape, cross the boarder to freedom. i want to be here, with nick, where i can get at him'

283- 'ofglen is giving up on me. she whispers less, talks more about the weather. i do not fel regret about this. i feel relief'

285- 'womens salvagings are not frequent. there is less need for them. these days we are so well behaved. i dont want to be telling this story'

290- 'after that what you do is up to you'

291- 'this is freedom, in my body, also, im reeling, red spreads everywhere'

304- 'faith is only a word embroidered'

40- 'when we think of the past its the beautiful thingswe pick out. we wantt to believe its all like that'

47- 'but the night is my time out. where should i go?  somewhere good'

138- 'i am too tired to go on with this story, im too tired to think about where i am. here is a different story, a better one.'

144- 'this is a reconstruction. all of it is a reconstuction.'

144- 'its impossible to say a thng exactly the wway it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out'

147- ''gives a little frown i choose to interpret as concern'

150- 'i dont think about anything oof the kind. i put it in only afterwards. maybe i should have thought about that, at the time, but i didnt.  as i said, this is a reconstruction'

239- 'you'll have to forgive me. im a refugee of the past... i go over customs and habits of being i've left or been forced to leave

281- 'i didnt and now he's fading. day by day, night by night he recdes and i become more faithless'

286- 'i'd begun to think she only existed in my head'

13- 'we slept in what had once been a gymnasium

34- 'freedom to and freedom from. in the days of anarchy, it was freedom to, now you are being given freedom from. dont take that for granted'

35- 'they seemed to be able to choose. we seemed to be able to choose then, we were a society dying... of too much choice'

37- 'i trusted fate back then'

123- 'this must have been one of the schools that was closed down then, for lack of children.'

180- 'she said i was rationalising. i said i was in love. she said that was no excuse'

228- 'get back here! you cant stay there, you arent there anymore. thats all gone!'

239- 'if he hadn't been frozen that way. stopped dead in time'

283- 'humanity is so adaptable... truly amazing what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations'

294- 'things are back to normal. how can i call this normal?'

13- 'spaces between them so we could not talk'

21- 'i hungar to commit the act of touch'

31- 'he would never be allowed such solitude'

35- 'its hard to imagine now, having a friend'

108- 'i want to be  valued in ways that i am not; i want to be more than valuabele'

113- 'i want to be with someone'

113- 'it's lack of love we die from. there's nobody here ii caan love, all the people i could love are dead or elsewhere'

126- 'this wway i can almost like her. after all shes one of us'

130- 'back on earth, my mother is part of the crowd now, and i cant see her anymore'

132- 'i wantt her back. i want everything back, the way it was. but there iis no point to it, this wanting'

135- 'we grip each others hands, we are no longer single'

136- 'we're with her we're the same as her we're drunk'

136- 'we smile too, we are one smile'

137- 'its a victtory, for all of us. we've done it'

163 - 'i think his motives and desires weren;t obvious even to him. they had not yet reached the level of words'

166- 'who else could i show it to?'

167- 'for some reason i said our instead of my'

177- 'there is an us then, there's a we i knew it'

240- 'from the point of future history, we'll be invisible'

240- 'i can't bear it, to have been erased like that'

244- 'both of us are supposed to be invisible, both of us are functionaries'

280- 'i did not do it for him, but for myself entirely'

281- 'being  here with him is safety; its a cave'

304- 'to put her out of her misery, and my self as well. to put her out of our misery'

20- 'its the red dress she dissaprves of, and what it stands for. she thinks i may be catchign, like a disease or any form of badluck'

20- ' embarrassed, but also a little defiant, as if it was their right'

21- 'Marthas are not supposed to fraternize with us'

23- 'she doesnt speak to me, unless she cant afford it. i am a reproach to her;  and a necessity'

24- 'try to think of it from their point of view.... this isnt easy for them'

54- 'the econowives do not like us'

56- 'of course they will resent you. it is only natural... try to pity them, forgive them, for they know not what they do'

57- 'in this house we all envy eachother something'

65- 'dont think this is easy for me either'

136-  'the mother and child, cooing and congratulating. envy radiates off them, i can smell it'

104- 'this is supposed to signify that we are one flesh, one being. what it really means is that she is in control of the process and thus the product'

106- 'which one of us is it worse foor, her or me?'

125- 'little whores, all of them, but still, you cant be to choosy'

161- 'i often amused myself this way, with small mean minded jokes about her'

260- 'she pretended to do all that love the dinner, hate the sin stuff, but she enjoyed it'

170- ' how could i be jealous of someone so obviously dried up and unhappy'

226- 'this rope segregates us, marks us off, keeps the others from contamination by us'

320- 'the best and most cost effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves'

29- 'the truth is that she is my sp, as i am hers'

54- 'shes like my own reflection, in a mirror from which i am moving away'

109- 'for the moment we're mirrors'

110- 'it's you here, in another body'

132- 'i didnt want ti be the model offspriing, the incarnaation of her ideas... i am not the justification for existance'

174- 'ofglen and i are more comfortable with one another now, we're used to each other. siamise twins'

202- 'they cannot be exchanged, one for the other. they cannot replace each other. nick for luke or luke for Nick, should doesnt apply'

224- 'i glide with ofgen along the sidewalk; the pair of us, and in front of us another pair'

305- 'how could i have believed i was alone in here? there was always two of us'

32- 'there are no more magazines, no more films, no more substitutes; only me and my shadow'

38- 'we are fascinated , but also reprelled. they seem undressed'

105- 'nor does **** coverr it: nothing is going on here tht i hadnt signed up for. there wasnt alot of choice bt there was some and this is what i chose'

123- 'they were lazy women, she says, they were sluts'

134- 'her flesh is damp, saturated, lustrous'

221- 'sex was too easy. anyone could just buy it. there was ntohing to work for, nothing to fight for.... inability to feel'

141- 'Moira had power now, she'd been set loose, she'd seet herself loose. she was now a loose woman. i think we found this frightening'

141- 'Moira was like an elevator with open sides. she made us dizzy. already we were losing our taste for freedom'

175- 'a rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze'

183- 'there wasnt even an enemy you could put your finger on'

183- 'identipasses. everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldnt be too careful'

203- 'thats one of the things they do. they force you to kill, within yourself'

239- 'everything were availible to us, as if there were no contingencies, no boundaries'

241- 'he wishes to diminish things, myslef included'

242- 'freedom, like everything else. is relitive'

245- 'im no longer in official existance, for now'

255- 'nobody getsout of here except in a black van'

281- 'it makes me feel more in control, as if there is a choice, a decision that could be made one way or another'

29- 'i'll empty myself, truly, ill bcome a chalice'

316- 'in any caseany documentation referring to them would have been destroyed'

322- 'he was accused of liberal tendenceies, of being in possession of a substantial and unauthorised collection of heretical pictorial and literary materials, and of harbouring a subversive'

227- 'people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning'

238- 'his addictive body, leaving you with bad withdrawal'

282- 'i tell him my real name, and that therefore i am known'

317- 'gilead regime was not the only one to reactto them at the time'